400 beds needed to cope with demand in South Australian hospitals

THE South Australian health system is short about 400 beds, a number equivalent to the size of another major city hospital, experts have warned.

THE South Australian health system is short about 400 beds, experts have warned.

That is a figure equivalent to the size of another major city hospital.

The state urgently needs many more hospital beds to cope with demand, the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association and the Australian Medical Association said.

Immediate past president of SASMOA David Pope said patients who genuinely need to be in hospital "aren't able to get into the appropriate places" because the state's hospitals are overcrowded.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister John Hill said SA had the highest number of public hospital beds a head in the country.

Confidential SA Health Documents show the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Noarlunga Health Service, Lyell McEwin Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre were all at or above capacity for general beds at 11am last Thursday, forcing waiting times to again blow out beyond the Government's four-hour target.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital was just below capacity for general beds, with 259 general patients in its 266 general beds. Five patients were waiting for beds.

"There are seriously ill patients in genuine need, who can't access that service because there is not enough capacity to go around," Dr Pope said. He said international studies found about three acute beds were needed a 1000 people.

"SA has got about 2.6-2.7 so they are missing 0.3 per 1000 people," he said. "That equates to about 400 beds across Adelaide - so we are missing a whole hospital."

The spokesperson for Mr Hill said SA had 3.1 beds per 1000 people. The national average is 2.7 beds per 1000 people.

"Projects underway at the LMH, Modbury Hospital, Women's and Children's Hospital and the new RAH will provide more than 250 further additional beds by 2016," the spokesperson said.

Dr Pope said patients were placed in treatment rooms at FMC and LMH.

"They are actually storage areas," he said.

"The problem with it is a lack of privacy and they may not have the usual ability to summon help because they may not have call buttons in there."

Opposition Health spokesman Duncan McFetridge said the Government "can't keep denying there's an issue".